Thursday, November 19, 2015

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 19/11/2015

Could Implantable LEDs Relieve Your Pain?
If
you are going to have LEDs implanted in your skull, you might as well
go all out and install a side window and a couple fans too.

Chronic
pain is often tough to understand, much less treat. But a new flexible,
implantable electronic device could illuminate why certain parts of
your body hurt. And down the road, the system, which features a
wirelessly activated light-emitting diode (LED), might even be able to
provide pain relief with the flip of a switch.

The
United States remains ill-prepared to combat state-backed cyber
intrusions from China and lawmakers should look at whether U.S.-based
companies be allowed to 'hack back' to recover or wipe stolen data, a
congressional advisory body said Tuesday.

Introducing The New Google+
The handful of you that actually use Google+ (or know someone that does) will be interested in this announcement.

Today,
we're starting to introduce a fully redesigned Google+ that puts
Communities and Collections front and center. Now focused around
interests, the new Google+ is much simpler. And it's more
mobile-friendlywe've rebuilt it across web, Android and iOS so that
you'll have a fast and consistent experience whether you are on a big
screen or small one.

Rightscorp Burns $4 For Every Dollar Pirates Pay in Fines
At this rate, you'd think these guys would be out of business by now.

Piracy
monetization firm Rightscorp has just turned in another set of
disappointing results for the third quarter of 2015. After losing $424K
during the three months ended September 30, the company has recorded a
net loss of $3.1m for 2015 thus far. That means that for every dollar it
receives in fines, the company loses $4.

In
our hands today is GIGABYTE's Z170X-Gaming 7; an Intel Z170 motherboard
from the G1 Gaming lineup which seeks to provide gamers and enthusiasts
with a whole host of cutting-edge features such as Thunderbolt 3,
dual-M.2 slots, Creative Sound Core3D and much more. Join us as we
explore this new offering and see how it matches up to the rest of the
competition.

Titan Becomes World's Largest GPU-Powered Visualization System for Scientific Discovery
Thanks
to our Tesla Accelerated Computing Platform, researchers can now run
computations and visualize the results on the same GPUs in a single
system  either simultaneously ("in-situ") or separately. And Titan, the
U.S.'s most powerful supercomputer, now holds the title of largest
GPU-accelerated visualization system in the world. That's a major step
forward. Researchers worldwide run high-powered supercomputer
simulations to understand how the galaxy formed, how the human brain
works and more. Then they create visualizations of their work to gain
new insights.

Until recently, researchers did this work
on two different systems. They used one for computation (running the
science application). Then they switched to another to render the
results visually. It could take days or weeks to complete the simulation
before they could visualize it. And depending upon the configuration of
the data center, this could require moving massive amounts of data
from the simulation system to the visualization system. During this
process, if researchers found an error or a parameter changed, they
would have to re-run the entire simulation and render again. It's an
arduous process that could delay scientific results.

14.5% Of Fallout 4 PC Players Still In Vault 111
Okay,
I'll admit it, I am one of the 14.5% of Fallout 4 players on the PC
that hasn't left Vault 111 yet. I'm guessing most people are like me and
installed the game but just haven't had time to play it yet.

SilverStone Strider Platinum ST55F-PT 550W PSU Review
SilverStone
comes to us today with a Platinum rated PSU that is also billed as
having a "Power Density (of) 305W per liter." While this is a bit odd,
the messaging seems to be big power in a little footprint. Let's see
how this "ultra silent" fully modular PSU stacks up when it comes to
serving up big-time power under big-time pressure. Read More ...

AMD Catalyst 15.11.1 Beta Driver
The
folks at AMD sent word that the new Catalyst 15.11.1 beta drivers are
now out. This driver release includes quality and performance
optimizations for Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Fallout 4, Star Wars:
Battlefront and Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Grab em' if you need em'.

Amazon: An Evil Empire Dawns On The Internet of Things
An evil empire? Really? That's a bit much, don't you think?

But
Amazon has now drawn a line in the sand -- it will no longer sell Apple
or Google's content streaming devices, the Apple TV and the Chromecast.
Why? Because neither of these products support playback of Amazon
Video.

Google To Contest Russia's Antitrust Ruling On Android
Was there any doubt that Google would contest Russia's antitrust ruling on Android?

Google
will contest in court a ruling by Russia's antitrust agency that it
broke competition law by abusing its dominant position with its Android
mobile platform, the U.S. technology company said on Tuesday. Russia's
competition watchdog ruled in September that Google had broken the law
by requiring pre-installation of certain applications on mobile devices
running on Android.

Overstock.com Has A Bunker Full Of Gold, Silver, And Food In Case Of Financial Collapse
I wonder if Overstock.com also gives employees a stocked bug out bag full of MREs and bottled water to keep under their desks?

Unless
you work at Overstock. The publicly-traded company has disclosed to the
Securities and Exchange Commission that it has about $6 million of gold
and $4.3 million worth of silver that could be divided up and used for
payroll (probably small coins) and also a 30-day supply of food. It's
all stashed in an undisclosed location, and the company thinks of it as
an insurance policy.

ASUS Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 LGA 1151 Review
In
our opinion ASUS' TUF series motherboards target the sweet spot in
regard to features, price, and performance. TUF motherboards give you
more features than most mid-range motherboards but lack certain features
found on the high end. The Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 is the flagship part
of the current TUF series. Read More ...

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 LGA 1151 Motherboard Review
MSI
has changed gears as of late vowing to be the number one motherboard
manufacturer in the "gaming" segment. While a "gaming" motherboard MSI
is still focused on overclocking with this model. We look at the Z170A
Gaming M7 to see if it brings MSI one step closer or a step away from
that very goal. Read More ...

Radeon R9 Nano Small Form Factor Video Card Review
This
evaluation will compare the new retail purchased Radeon R9 Nano with a
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 N970-IX-OC small form factor video card in a
mini-ITX Cooler Master Elite 110 Intel Skylake system build. We will
find out if the higher priced Nano is worth the money for a 1440p and
1080p gameplay experience in a tiny footprint. Read More ...

Fall 2015 Solid State Drive Technology Update
Since
our last SSD update article, the last 7 months have seen no shortage of
exciting announcements, and the enthusiast market has rapidly evolved
in both positive and confusing ways. Let's get up to speed on U.2, NVMe,
3D XPoint, M&A, and the rest of the buzzword soup that make up
this market. Read More ...

Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W (TPG-1200F) Review
Thermaltake
is back with a new 1200 watt fully modular PSU. We have used
Thermaltake power supplies on our test bench literally for years with
excellent results. However the Toughpower line has not always been the
best value out there, but today we see a 1200 watt PSU with revised
pricing. Read More ...

Enermax ETS-T40Fit-RF Air Cooler Review
Enermax
is back again today with a new CPU air cooler that looks to conquer
size and noise once again. Enermax calls this a "Compact side flow air
cooler for 100% RAM compatibility." Does a fan size bigger than the
heatsink surfaces and its "side flow air" give us better performance
than those we have seen previously? Read More ...

XFX R9 390X Double Dissipation Core Edition Review
On
our test bench today is the XFX R9 390X Double Dissipation Core Edition
Video Card which we will pit against its green team competition of a
reference GTX 980 and a massively overclocked GTX 970 to determine
whether it earns its place at a price point that lies between its two
foes. Read More ...

MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING Video Card Review
We
take the MSI GTX 980 Ti LIGHTNING video card and see how it plays the
most demanding games. This video card "engineered to perfection" for
extreme overclocking and has a TriFrozr cooling setup. We compare it to
the overclocked ASUS GTX 980 Ti STRIX DCIII and an AMD R9 390X CrossFire
configuration to find its true value. Read More ...

PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 Video Card Review
The
PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 390 combines two AMD Radeon R9 390
GPUs in CrossFire on a single video card. We'll take this beast of a
video card and see how it games at 4K. If you want a simple all-in-one
AMD CrossFire solution for 4K gaming you won't want to miss this. Read More ...

GIGABYTE Z170X Gaming G1 Motherboard Review
The
GIGABYTE Z170X Gaming G1 represents the flagship of GIGABYTE's Z170
family and the G1 line itself. Simply put, it is the most advanced and
feature packed Z170 motherboard GIGABYTE builds. The Z170X Gaming G1 is
overbuilt, feature-rich, and is possibly the ultimate Z170 motherboard
so long as price isn't a factor. Read More ...

Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G 650W Review
The
Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G 650W is a new PSU that heralds monitoring
electricity cost, recording the status of your PC, and sharing that data
in the cloud as its main features. All of that is great if that is
what you are into, but as usual we first want to know how good of a PSU
is it? Read More ...